Bread Tales

Monday, November 1, 2010

Southwestern Deviled Eggs

A Borough Market carnivorous pumpkin

These comprise Part Deux of "Savory Halloween 2010", an accidental but delicious culinary experiment. Overwhelmed with sweet goodies, I needed something savory and, in homage to my Arizonan roots, spicy. I had recently purchased some Chipotle Chiles in adobo sauce from my first foray to Borough Market (see carniverous pumpkin photo below) and I was yearning to try it out in any way possible. A quick recipe search for deviled eggs (what could be more Halloween-y than that?) brought up Emeril's recipe for Southwestern Deviled Eggs, complete with what was termed "Emeril's Southwestern Seasoning". Well, it seemed fairly standard to me, but as it was delicious, credit needs to be given where credit is due.

The other surprise lesson learned in the course of this recipe was that of the "perfect hard boiled egg". I know, I know, there's no excuse for me *not* to know how to boil an egg at this late stage, but there's always been something slightly mysterious to me about the whole process. Do you start with cold water? Hot water? How long do you boil them? How long do you let them rest? How do you get the shells to come off easily? Well, again, the internet provided me with all the answers I needed. The hard boiled egg recipe I used worked like a charm and made peeling those bad boys a snap.

The only substitute to this recipe was the swap of dijon mustard mayo (found in my local Tesco) for regular mayonnaise. It made it just that much more zesty, and who doesn't like mustard in deviled eggs? For those of you out there without the convenience of the Tesco-based product, a mix of dijon mustard and majo will surely work just fine. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 dozen hard-boiled large eggs, peeled (recipe follows)

1/2 cup mayonnaise (or dijon mustard/mayo mix)

2 tablespoons finely minced pickled jalapenos, drained

2 tablespoons canned chipotle in adobo sauce

1/2 teaspoon Emeril's Southwest Seasoning, recipe follows

Pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon smoked hot paprika, for garnish

Directions

Slice the eggs in half lengthwise and carefully remove the yolks. Press the yolks through a fine-mesh sieve into a mixing bowl. Add the mayonnaise, jalapenos, chipotle in adobo, Southwest Essence, and salt to taste. Stir to blend well. Spoon the mixture into the egg whites. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour. Sprinkle with the paprika just before serving. (If the paprika is added too early it will stain the eggs.)

Emeril's Southwest Seasoning:

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons paprika

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Yield: 1/2 cup

Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

Carefully set eggs in a pan. You may use as few as one or as many as a dozen. Cover the eggs with 1" of cold water.

Set the pan on the stove and heat until water comes to a rolling boil.

Cover with a lid and set off. Let sit for approx. 15 minutes.

Dump water and fill pan with ice-cold water. Leave the eggs in the pan. Let sit 15 - 20 min and dump the water. Your eggs are ready for peeling.